Bakhtiyar Artayev

Bakhtiyar Karipullayevich Artayev ( _ru. Бахтияр Карипуллаевич Артаев; born March 14, 1983 in Taraz, Kazakhstan) is a Kazakh boxer who won the only Gold medal for Kazakhstan in the men's welterweight division (– 69 kg) at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He was also the Winner of the Val Barker Trophy for the outstanding and most stylistic boxer of the 2004 Olympics Games. After the 2004 Summer Olympics he became live legend of boxing in Kazakhstan; one of the Taraz sport centers was named after his name and a book was written.

Career

The first tournament that Bakhtiyar won was the regional children tournament under his coach Nurlan Akurpekov, who still coaches Bakhtiyar Artayev these days. Before 2004 Summer Olympics he always played the second role in Kazakhstan boxing team, fighting only in Kazakhstan amateur tournaments. Nevertheless, he participated in 2003 World Amateur Boxing Championships, where he lost in the quarterfinals.Before the 2004 Summer Olympics he had not been considered as a favorite in a welterweight division. Surprisingly, he easily got into semifinals where he defeated twice Olympic champion, Oleg Saitov from Russia. In the final, Bakhtiyar defeated a Cuban boxer Lorenzo Aragon, who had not been beaten for a year and a half.

He won the bronze medal at the 2005 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Mianyang, China and went up to middleweight.

Artayev's results were as follows:

the 2004 Summer Olympics:

*Round of 32: Defeated Willy Bertrand Tankeu (Cameroon) Wipeout points stoppage
*Round of 16: Defeated Aliasker Bashirov (Turkmenistan) 33-23
*Quarterfinals: Defeated Viktor Polyakov (Ukraine) RSC-3 (0:50)
*Semifinals: Defeated Oleg Saitov (Russia) 20-18
*Gold Medal Match: Defeated Lorenzo Aragon Armenteros (Cuba) 36-26

the 2007 World Championship:

*Round of 64: Defeated Nakani Giorgi RSCI R2 (1:43)
*Round of 32: Defeated CHO Deok-Jin RSC R4 (0:55)
*Round of 16: Defeated Prasathinphimai Suriya 20:7
*Quaterfinals: Defeated Said Rachidi 19:11
*Semifinals: Lost to Alfonso Blanco (boxer) 7:15

the 2008 Summer Olympics:

*Round of 32: Defeated Said Rachidi 8:2
*Round of 16: Defeated Matvey Korobov 10:7
*Quaterfinals: Lost to James Degale 3:8

References

* [http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ar/bakhtiyar-artayev-1.html Profile]
* [http://www.sports.ru/tags/5375982.html?type=dossier]
* [http://www.aiba.org/en-US/Chicago/results20071103.aspx]